Comments on: Starting seeds http://www.self-sufficient-home.com/142-starting-seeds.html Our journey to self sufficiency Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:56:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: admin http://www.self-sufficient-home.com/142-starting-seeds.html/comment-page-1#comment-291 admin Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:26:42 +0000 http://www.self-sufficient-home.com/?p=142#comment-291 Thanks Dennis! We did use heirloom seeds for everything :) Good tip on perennials! We haven't planted potatoes yet but plan too, and we have TONS of wild blackberries so that will be great. Our strawberries didn't go to well, next year maybe! We are at 3600ft, weeeee bit more snow I'd imagine :) We couldn't put anything in the ground until late May or early June... we got snow in May (not much but temps below freezing). The pig pen sounds like it's worked out great!!! We still have to rebuild our chicken coop, and get it setup for winter too. Hoping to get there before winter but the house needs work still. (Slow on updating house progress!!! So much more to do). Thanks for the post and I hope you enjoy the rest of the blog :) Thanks Dennis!
We did use heirloom seeds for everything :)

Good tip on perennials! We haven’t planted potatoes yet but plan too, and we have TONS of wild blackberries so that will be great. Our strawberries didn’t go to well, next year maybe! We are at 3600ft, weeeee bit more snow I’d imagine :) We couldn’t put anything in the ground until late May or early June… we got snow in May (not much but temps below freezing).

The pig pen sounds like it’s worked out great!!!
We still have to rebuild our chicken coop, and get it setup for winter too. Hoping to get there before winter but the house needs work still. (Slow on updating house progress!!! So much more to do).

Thanks for the post and I hope you enjoy the rest of the blog :)

]]> By: NorCalDennis http://www.self-sufficient-home.com/142-starting-seeds.html/comment-page-1#comment-290 NorCalDennis Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:56:50 +0000 http://www.self-sufficient-home.com/?p=142#comment-290 Great Job starting the garden. Did you look into/or are you using heirloom seeds? You can collect seeds from your harvest and use those the next year. The hybrids don't give you the same luxury. Harvesting seeds from hybrids will be a guessing game as to what variety of plant you end up with the next year. Try and plant as many perrenials as you can as well. We have grapes (several varieties), artichokes, asparagus, strawberries, rasberries, and potatoes that were planted once but have returned the following year. I believe we are near the same elevation (1800 ft), so you should have similar success with these. We don't expect any seedlings planted in the ground before Mother's Day to survive. Yet, we always are fooled by a March or April warm up and stick something in the ground that we started inside - and everytime!!! there is a late chill that wipes them out. We never learn! Last year I had great luck with a hard red spring wheat that I grew to harvest. When I tried the hard red winter wheat I had no luck at all. I think because all the fields were green in the spring, the deer left the wheat alone, but in the fall the wheat was the only thing green for miles - and unless I was going to sit out there each night with my shotgun - the wheat never stood a chance. Our pig pen has become a bed of squash and melons - all the excess that went into their pen last fall has come up and we are letting it grow. We'll get to harvest what's in there, use the plants to green manure/rototill into the pen, then put two more pigs in there for this fall/winter. Kind of a full-circle win-win. Best of Luck to you!!! Great Job starting the garden. Did you look into/or are you using heirloom seeds? You can collect seeds from your harvest and use those the next year. The hybrids don’t give you the same luxury. Harvesting seeds from hybrids will be a guessing game as to what variety of plant you end up with the next year.

Try and plant as many perrenials as you can as well. We have grapes (several varieties), artichokes, asparagus, strawberries, rasberries, and potatoes that were planted once but have returned the following year. I believe we are near the same elevation (1800 ft), so you should have similar success with these.

We don’t expect any seedlings planted in the ground before Mother’s Day to survive. Yet, we always are fooled by a March or April warm up and stick something in the ground that we started inside – and everytime!!! there is a late chill that wipes them out. We never learn!

Last year I had great luck with a hard red spring wheat that I grew to harvest. When I tried the hard red winter wheat I had no luck at all. I think because all the fields were green in the spring, the deer left the wheat alone, but in the fall the wheat was the only thing green for miles – and unless I was going to sit out there each night with my shotgun – the wheat never stood a chance.

Our pig pen has become a bed of squash and melons – all the excess that went into their pen last fall has come up and we are letting it grow. We’ll get to harvest what’s in there, use the plants to green manure/rototill into the pen, then put two more pigs in there for this fall/winter. Kind of a full-circle win-win.

Best of Luck to you!!!

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